


Waking Up

by Marzi



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Drug Use, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 07:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3373118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marzi/pseuds/Marzi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time he wakes up, they tell him three people are dead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waking Up

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this off a song prompt on LJ ages ago, recently went back to it, and decided I liked it enough to move it here.

The first time he wakes up, they tell him three people are dead.  
  
He goes back to sleep.  
  


-  
  
He's got a concussion and they can't hold him for long, so they sneak him out the back the next day. They avoid the media crowd, but he can still hear the radio.  
  
It's not three. It's four.  
  
-  
  
The first photo he sees of her isn't a very good one.  
  
It isn't even in color.  
  
-  
  
She's not crying in court.  
  
He wants to. He ruined her life. The lawyers tell him to wear a different face when parts of him start breaking, and he puts it on.  
  
He wonders what she looked like before he broke her.  
  
-  
  
They run into one another at the park by the courthouse.  
  
She just stares at him and he feels so sick he has to go back inside.  
  
-  
  
There's a war over whether or not he keeps his position.  
  
A repentant and reformed man seems to get good ratings.  
  
-  
  
One of the other team captains gets busted pumping his team up on 'roids. They didn't even know.  
  
He's out of the papers and so is she.  
  
-  
  
Everyone tells him to stop thinking about it. It was an accident. He shouldn't call her.  
  
He finds out where she lives and decides to visit.  
  
-  
  
When she opens the door he tries not to flinch.  
  
"I've got someone coming over." It sounds like 'I've just called the cops.'  
  
"That was probably the guy I took the flowers from."  
  
She doesn't look nearly as bothered as he thinks she should.  
  
-  
  
"I wasn't drunk."  
  
"What?"  
  
"It was stims. Everyone just told me booze was easier to explain."  
  
The waitress refills their coffee cups, and he wonders why she chose this place. Probably because it was easier to handle than her bedroom.  
  
He doesn't quite understand how he ended up frakking the woman he screwed over.  
  
-  
  
"I'm not doing this so that one day you'll forgive me." She never asks anything, but he wants to explain.  
  
"I'm not doing this because I think it's good for you."  
  
It's nice to know where he stands with her.  
  
-  
  
Someone snaps a picture of the two of them.  
  
The team's PR manager has a fit. The C-Bucs just look at him funny.  
  
-  
  
"Are you trying to drive me to suicide?"  
  
"I've thought about it."  
  
"And?"  
  
"You seem to be doing that well enough on your own, Sam."  
  
-  
  
She smokes a lot.  
  
He tells her she should quit and she just laughs at him.  
  
-  
  
The story breaks the papers and he loses his position on the team.  
  
She offers her couch to the worlds renowned stim junky.  
  
He stays awake all night waiting for her to kill him. He had driven over with his high still climbing.  
  
-  
  
She presses a cloth to his sweating forehead. "Told you you were killing yourself."  
  
"You are the most patient woman I have ever met."  
  
She smiles and he knows she's also the most cruel.  
  
-  
  
"Laura."  
  
She's smoking, and she just looks at him in answer.  
  
"I think I know why you slept with me."  
  
Her eyebrows climb up. "I didn't."  
  
He has to rethink everything.  
  
-  
  
"You need to get a job."  
  
"Going to kick me out?"  
  
"You don't live here."  
  
He hasn't paid rent on his condo for two months. It suddenly strikes him that he's homeless.  
  
-  
  
"I know why you had sex with me."  
  
She lights two cigarettes and hands one to him.  
  
"You were letting go."  
  
"Of what?"  
  
"Your life."  
  
"I was never suicidal."  
  
"Metaphorically speaking."  
  
-  
  
She starts holding his hand in public.  
  
When she kisses him, he thinks he's gone mad.  
  
-  
  
"Why did you come see me?"  
  
It's the first time she's ever asked him anything. He makes himself think before answering, she'll know if he's lying and he wants to remember correctly.  
  
"I wanted you to scare me. I wanted a reason to stop."  
  
"Selfish."  
  
"Yea."  
  
-  
  
They have sex for the second time, and sleep together for the first.  
  
The next morning he sees the stack of letters from the hospital on her counter. He offers to drive her.  
  
He's been sober three months.  
  
-  
  
"Do I live with you?"  
  
"Do you have a key?"  
  
"No."  
  
She gives him one.  
  
-  
  
He wakes up and his neck hurts from sleeping in a plastic chair, ill suited to his shape.  
  
She's smiling at him, and he can't tell if it's because of his pain induced grimace or the way sleep mussed his hair.  
  
Things used to be simple.  
  
"The doctor just left."  
  
-  
  
"I feel awake. For the first time in months."  
  
"I know the feeling." He had it on her bathroom floor after his impromptu detox.  
  
She squeezes his hand. "I think we're getting better."  
  
"The first step is admitting it."  
  
She laughs and he can't help but smile in turn.


End file.
